1919] NOTES. 309 



problems that confronted it. stressing those arising from the operations of 

 the Smith-Hughes A.ct. 



The general theme for the meeting was the training of teachers for voca- 

 tional agriculture, with special prominence being given to the emerge 

 teacher training courses. W. F. Lusk described the emergency courses ••on- 

 ducted in the New York State College of Agriculture. The requirements for 

 admission to these courses wore ample farm experience, successful teaching 

 experience, at least two years of educational preparation beyond the high 

 school, and exemption or deferred classification under the Selective Sen 

 Act. Each course extended over a period of nine weeks, Including the week of 

 the annual conference of agricultural instructors held at the college. A rather 

 extensive program of studies was given covering the principal phases of agri- 

 cultural subject matter, based essentially on the subject matter of the cor- 

 responding high school course, with some attention to the problems of teaching. 

 Two general weaknesses of those taking this course were brought out, one 

 growing out of their limited agricultural information and the other a tendency 

 to adhere to academic rather than the vocational standards of teaching. For 

 those men who are now teaching, a further course for the coming summer is 

 planned which will bear directly upon subject matter omitted in their previous 

 training. 



Verde Peterson continued the discuss'on by outlining briefly the emergi 

 summer course conducted at Clemson College. Men taking this course were 

 required to have been reared on a farm, to be college graduates with several 

 years of successful teaching experience, and in most cases to have studied and 

 taught some elementary agriculture. A six-weeks' course was given in soils 

 and fertilizers, field crops, materials and methods for teaching agriculture, and 

 principle.: if agricultural education. Agricultural college graduates who had 

 been teaching most of one year took four weeks of this course, chiefly in soils 

 and crops. The plans for the coming summer include a similar course in 

 animal husbandry to prepare for the second year's teaching work. 



The emergency training course at the Georgia State College of Agriculture, 

 discussed by J. T. Wheeler, extended over a period of three months covering 

 the entire field of agriculture. Requirements for admission to this course 

 were at least a four-year high school course, farm experience equal to being 

 reared on the farm, and successful teaching experience. 



Dean Alfred Vivian reported that two distinct plans were tried at Ohio State 

 University. One group of men were agricultural college graduates, but without 

 any methods training. These men were given three weeks' training in methods 

 with uniformly successful results. Another group were graduates of arts 

 colleges and had taken some work in agriculture. This group was dven an 

 eight weeks' course in farm crops and horticulture and a course in vocational 

 agricultural methods. The results of the work of this group have not been as 

 successful as the first because of the failure to grasp the vocational idea of 

 teaching. 



In the general discussion that followed it seemed to be the consensus of 

 opinion that these emergency courses in teacher training would need to be 

 continued for some time to meet the increasing demands for vocational 

 teachers, and until the agricultural colleges could furnish through their regu- 

 lar courses an adequate supply of trained teachers. 



R. W. Stimson considered the problem of teacher training in service. He 

 discussed the type of man who could make good as an agricultural teacher 

 and the type of man who is needed as the itinerant teacher trainer, and also 

 the program of teacher training itself, which he said is the project method of 

 teaching teachers how to teach agriculture while they are teaching. He gave 

 a description of this plan as worked out in Massachusetts. 



